Transportation of horses by air is commonplace because of the need to transfer the animals between studs for breeding purposes, for example. Great care must be taken during the transportation of bloodstock because of the high value of the animals, and a number of containers have been proposed to meet the special needs associated with the transportation of horses and other similarly sized valuable animals by air.
For example, applicants' U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,404 discloses a conveyance suitable for the transportation of livestock (particularly horses) by air, and comprising a generally rectangular box-like enclosure having one wall hingedly connected to the floor of the enclosure to provide a ramp for off-loading horses from the enclosure and another wall including a central portion hinged to the floor which can be utilized for loading horses into the enclosure. Both the wall and the wall portion include means for locking them in an upright position. Inside the enclosure a number of demountable partitions are provided for use in defining a number of separate compartments, and these partitions can be stored adjacent the side walls of the enclosure to enable the enclosure to be used as a general air freight container when horses are not being transported.
Thus, our previously proposed container can be utilized in one flight direction, e.g., an outward journey, as a horse box for the transportation of horses and in another flight direction, e.g., the homeward journey, as a general freight container for transporting freight other than livestock when there are no horses requiring transportation.
The transport of an empty container will still involve expense, because the cost of carrying a container is calculated by the airline on the basis of both the size and weight of the container, and the above discussed container offers the advantage that even when there are no horses to be transported the container can be used to generate income for its owner by carrying other goods. However, while it is the aim of most freight transport operators to run a profitable organization by using their containers to transport goods on every journey and never to fly an empty container, there are sometimes circumstances beyond the operator's control which necessitate the movement of empty containers despite the expense involved. Under these circumstances, it would be desirable to be able to reduce the size of the container so that, for example, it could be flown in a smaller aircraft or in a more confined part of the aircraft in order to minimize transportation costs.